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A review by ria_mhrj
It's Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive by Mark Kermode
5.0
Having read and loved The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex last year, I got my hands on It's Only a Movie, expecting more of the same. However I was pleased to discover a different but equally entertaining reading experience awaited me.
An autobiography told by a film lover, the book was an amusing journey through Mark Kermode's early experiences with cinema and how he built a career around a subject he is so passionate about. The book was hilarious, written with a wry and self effacing tone that nicely contrasts his reviewing style, which he describes in the book as being necessary for all critics, the absolute sense that you are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, wrong, wrong. I was also pleased to see Kermode sneer at the "if you liked... you'll love..." school of criticism, a method which recently kindled my ire with posters for Pitch Perfect professing it to be "Bridesmaids meets Ted!". No. Just No.
Back to the book, it provided great insight into the mind of a passionate film fan and I would be very keen to read more books by Kermode, let's hope he puts pen to paper once more.
An autobiography told by a film lover, the book was an amusing journey through Mark Kermode's early experiences with cinema and how he built a career around a subject he is so passionate about. The book was hilarious, written with a wry and self effacing tone that nicely contrasts his reviewing style, which he describes in the book as being necessary for all critics, the absolute sense that you are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, wrong, wrong. I was also pleased to see Kermode sneer at the "if you liked... you'll love..." school of criticism, a method which recently kindled my ire with posters for Pitch Perfect professing it to be "Bridesmaids meets Ted!". No. Just No.
Back to the book, it provided great insight into the mind of a passionate film fan and I would be very keen to read more books by Kermode, let's hope he puts pen to paper once more.